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g0ne · **10-20-2014, 09:12 AM**

Okay, I'm working on the wiki entry for Eleni, and I have a question. Basically, according to lore, ARR starts in 1577, right? Well, recently the one year anniversary just passed. Are we to assume that a year also passed in Eorzea?Â

Thing is, I need to set her birth year, so... she was 20 when ARR started, recently turned 21. That would make her birth year 1557.

My main question is this though: Is it now 1578 according to Eorzean time?

Warren Castille · **10-20-2014, 09:23 AM**

(10-20-2014, 09:12 AM)Eleni Wrote: Okay, I'm working on the wiki entry for Eleni, and I have a question. Basically, according to lore, ARR starts in 1577, right? Well, recently the one year anniversary just passed. Are we to assume that a year also passed in Eorzea?Â

Thing is, I need to set her birth year, so... she was 20 when ARR started, recently turned 21. That would make her birth year 1557.

My main question is this though: Is it now 1578 according to Eorzean time?

Unknown. It's hard to tell if the Rising event factually marked a year on the Eorzea calendar or if we're stuck in MSQ-limbo waiting on an actual remark to the year. I think the current "world time" is entirely dependent on how much of the story you've done. Following Praetorium it will always be the five year mark, and blah blah blah not sure.

It'd be safe to assume we're past 1577, though I don't think we know by how much.

SOUNSYY. SOUNSYY GET IN HERE.

I spelled that right. Pre-caffeine Monday means everyone gets free mistakes.

***Maril*** · **10-20-2014, 09:34 AM**

Personally I prefer adding a year whenever ARR turns another year, because it's honestly a lot easier and I can't really see how adding x amount of extra days because XIV has 1 more day per week is going to change a whole lot in the grand scheme of things.Â
And to me, present time is completely unrelated to how far you are in the main story, because it shouldn't matter for your character unless you're RP'ing as "The hero of light".Â

So I would say that it is now 1578, and the Calamity happened 6 Eorzean years ago instead of the 5 that was stated when the game launched. That is, in terms of counting years. If you'd ask Sastra icly she'd reply with the eras and that.

EDIT: The fact that they have anniversary events ought to help though, like if they keep on having them every time XIV turns a year and marks it in game as a year that has passed.

FreelanceWizard · **10-20-2014, 09:35 AM**

The entire plot of 1.0 happened in a year. I don't happen to have a post reference handy, but the devs have more or less stated that time advances in the lore on "comic book time" -- it moves forward when the lore requires it.

Also, ARR doesn't start in 1577. Each of the eras restarts numbering, so the Calamity happened in 1572 6AE. We then entered the 7th Umbral for five years, which puts ARR's start at 5 7UE. The end of the 2.0 MSQ establishes 1 7AE by declaration of the Grand Company leaders.

With that in mind, different players have different opinions on how to mark time. Some track the days, weeks, and months but not the years; some track everything to RL time; some hold to the "comic book time" definition of the devs. It really depends on who you RP with. There's a thread running around in RP Discussion where people talk about how they handle it, if you're looking for ideas. Smile

EDIT: For what it's worth, I advance time on an RL basis, so the reckoning of my characters, it's actually 2 7AE (as it's been one year, more or less, since the events of the 2.0 MSQ "took effect" in my mind with the launch of 2.1). I'm aware this doesn't match with the dev conception of time, but I can always reconcile that on my end as needed.

Warren Castille · **10-20-2014, 10:20 AM**

Ah, time. I'm strictly comic-book-time only because I don't want to have to retcon things later. Besides, Warren's already old. He doesn't need the clock ticking.

Berrod Armstrong · **10-20-2014, 10:29 AM**

I tend to advance time when there are announcements of time having passed. For example, if the expansion says 'seven years after the calamity', then I just lump things up and say that everything Berrod did occured in the space of those two years. I prefer not to be too particular and precise about days going by according to RL so that I don't get any nasty surprises. I keep it vague and at most times unmentioned. That way, I can just go with the flow when they announce time stuff.

Sounsyy · **10-20-2014, 11:03 AM**

So I actually just made a similar post in the Days of the Week Thread.

As Fernehalwes explains in the CG Midlander Thread the XIV universe exists (lore wise) in a time bubble similar to how comic strips and comics work. Time theoretically passes, but we never actually advance in time. This is because if a new player joins the game in 2016, story-wise they will start off in the 5th Year of the Seventh Umbral Era, despite people who are currently up to date with the storyline through Patch 3.2659178B are now in the 3rd Year of the Seventh Astral Era. If that makes sense?

As for calendar years, the number of years resets with every Era shift. The Sixth Astral Era (1.0) ended in the Year 1572 6AE. When we entered the 7th Umbral Era, we entered into the 1st Year of the Seventh Umbral Era (01 7UE). Five years later (05 7UE) we entered into the Seventh Astral Era, reseting our numerology once more to 1st Year of the Seventh Astral Era (01 7AE).

Now, as I stated in the Days of the Week thread, some will make the argument that because we had a Heavensturn seasonal event (Eorzean New Years) this means we have at least experienced the end of at least part of a year in Eorzea and the start of a new. Making it effectively 6 years since 1.0. So depending on if you want to equate real time passage to time passage in Eorzea, we're still either in the 1st or 2nd Year of the 7th Astral Era.*

*I strongly caution doing this though! A lot of people assumed that time passed (because of Heavensturns) in 1.0 as well but lore stated that the whole of 1.0 events took place in the single year of 1572. With 3.0 quickly approaching and Yoshi-P's nudge that a story-altering event is going to happen to herald the change over from 2.0 to 3.0 just like 1.0 to 2.0's change over, we may see a canon date added to lore for said event. And that date is likely to still be 1st Year of the Seventh Astral Era.

The dates 1577 and 1578 do not actually exist. But when determining the birth year of your character it can help to "use" those numbers as a way to simplify the math. So yes, your character's birth year would be 1557 6AE.

Seriphyn · **10-20-2014, 01:52 PM**

Waaait, I thought the astral and umbral eras were independent of the year...that means there was 1500 years in the sixth astral era?!

Wouldn't mind seeing lore source about that.

Aya · **10-20-2014, 01:56 PM**

I would really suggest not stressing too much about current in-game date, its just too much effort for too little reward!

Celebrate a birthday when you'd like to celebrate a birthday, and so on ^_^

FreelanceWizard · **10-20-2014, 02:31 PM**

(10-20-2014, 01:52 PM)Seriphyn Wrote: Waaait, I thought the astral and umbral eras were independent of the year...that means there was 1500 years in the sixth astral era?!

Wouldn't mind seeing lore source about that.

Direct dev post references aside, this would be impossible given the statements in game about the Amdapori and Allagan civilizations existing thousands of years ago. Smile

I'm sure that Sounsyy will be about shortly to provide some exact text.

Sounsyy · **10-20-2014, 03:42 PM**

(10-20-2014, 01:52 PM)Seriphyn Wrote: Waaait, I thought the astral and umbral eras were independent of the year...that means there was 1500 years in the sixth astral era?!

Wouldn't mind seeing lore source about that.

Much of what we know about Time keeping in Eorzea is from The Five Ages - An Eorzean Chronology which was penned by Lewphon of Sharlayan in the Year 233 of the Sixth Astral Era. (Or 1,344 years ago.)

So yes, there were 1,572 years of Sixth-Astral-Era-goodness in between the Sixth and Seventh Umbral Eras.

Because 1,572 years ago... well 1,577 years ago now, Twelve Archons bid the remnant survivors of the Fifth Astral Era nations of Amdapor, Nym, and a yet to be named third nation to create (for the first time in Eorzean history) the Grand Companies of Eorzea to battle an Ascian plot for ascension of their primal god. Though the Archons were betrayed by one of their own, the union of the Grand Companies defeated the Ascians and ushered in the 1st Year of the Sixth Astral Era.

More evidence of this is we have rough dates for the previous few Astral and Umbral Eras. The Sixth Umbral Era took place 1,600 years ago. While the Fifth Umbral Era (The Age of Endless Frost) ended roughly 3,000 years ago. Meaning the Fifth Astral Era (5AE) lasted roughly 1,400 or 1,500 years as well.

And then we have the ancient Allagan Empire, which was destroyed by an earthquake 5,000 years ago during the Third Astral Era. So depending on how long the Fourth and Fifth Umbral Eras lasted, the Fourth Astral Era lasted anywhere between 1,500 to 2,000 years also.

g0ne · **10-21-2014, 07:02 AM**

Oh, okay. Thanks for all the input, guys!Â Big Grin

I had no idea time in Eorzea was so complex.Â Dazed

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RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes